I guess the time is now to start building nuclear so that it is running in a decade.
only thing I really worry about with nuclear is the need for water, if we can handle that part with waste or salt water then I’m all for trying it
Interesting, I didn’t know about the water use. Apparently most use sea water.
Sounds about right. But I worry about the nimby backlash to all this. Where I am in eastern Ontario, there is already blowback (if you’ll pardon the expression) to wind power, let alone more traditionally contentious options like nuclear and hydro dams.
A while back someone was going door to door delivering pamphlets warning people about the nuclear plant and I was like wtf, but this is good news lmao.
Reminds me of the lady who was taping up signs on lamp posts trying to get 5G banned in the neighbourhood.
She just needs a Somavedic Amber to block all the 5G waves /s
Omg I can’t believe that is an actual product. Though tbh I know some people who would buy it.
Once upon a time, I drove to the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. It’s a radio telescope observatory in the middle of nowhere. Around the facility is a no radio/wifi/cellular zone to help reduce noise the telescopes would pick up. But when I got there, I noticed there was a village nearby full of literal tin-hat-wearing conspiracy types who make pilgrimages there to be in emf-free paradise. It was such a strange juxtaposition. You have some of the brightest minds in science coming to the observatory, and right next door, the bat shit crazy…
There’s a world where the green party and environmentalists are pro-nuclear instead of conspiracy nuts
Canada is in a uniquely good position for nuclear, we have a massive domestic supply of uranium and a lot of geographically safe areas to build power plants, plus good access to water for cooling.
Fyi, these estimates almost always wildly over-estimate the amount of power needed to electrify everything. When carefully calculated, it’s much less because fossil fuel infrastructure is just so damned inefficient. You burn most of it up just getting it from the ground to the engine or furnace, which themselves are wildly inefficient compared to electric versions. The book Electrify! has a detailed breakdown. It’s America-centric, but applies to Canada well enough.
With better transmission lines there’s also huge rooms for load sharing efficiency improvements, but I would still argue that we should be vastly overbuilding electricity production. Everything in society is cheaper and easier when energy prices are lower, and if we don’t have the same carbon cost to that production there’s no reason not to spend money there as a giant subsidy to everyone.
In general, we should be overbuilding because we are parked right North of the second largest consumer of electricity in the world and electricity prices in a lot of US states is crazy expensive.
Yes, and especially with solar and wind, it’s so cheap, you overbuild so it covers more baseload, and when you have excess, you can create whole new industries like Hydrogen production that can ramp up quickly and make good use of it.
Predictable, reliable excess energy on the grid, even if it’s transient, oughta be useful for something. Water hydrolysis is as good a use as any. Manufacturing methane from captured CO2. Water purification from ocean water. something.
For sure. There are countless new industries that could pop up if there was transient super-cheap energy. Basically, anything that could be totally automated and is energy limited. Some things require more predictability than others, but there are lots of opportunities. And in the end, you get a more stable grid with less need for storage or “peaking” plants. “Make hay while the sun shines.”
Make it a code requirement to have a way to generate SOME power for all commercial buildings. A flat top warehouse is prime location for solar panels. Anything higher than 5-6 storeys is prime location for wind power generation.
Power or food. My city has started rooftop greenhouses.
